"I'm too weird looking to be a leading man": But Martin Clunes "odd" face has made him a national treasure

The Men Behaving Badly and Doc Martin star says he prefers interesting roles rather than romantic leads

"I work to provide for my family": Martin Clunes with his wife and daughter (Photo: Don Features)

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With his Toby jug ears, fleshy lips and wide, wonky grin, his is one of the most recognisable faces on British TV.

But, as actor Martin Clunes readily admits, there was a time when he worried that his unconventional looks would prevent him being a success.

Decades later – with hugely popular roles in Men Behaving Badly and Doc Martin under his belt – he’s finally come to love the “odd” face that’s turned him into a national treasure as well as made his fortune.

He has carved a career out of playing interesting rather than romantic leads and he says he wouldn’t have it any other way. “I never intended to be a leading man because I’m tall and odd-looking,” he laughs. “And I’m certainly no sex symbol, no, no, no.

“I’ve never been a leading man in the Brad Pitt, Hugh Grant way, that kind of traditional romantic lead.

“I’m no Martin Shaw if you know what I mean, I’m not that kind of hero.

“But I don’t want to watch me being a hero, frankly. No, I’ve always played oddballs or an undertaker or a nasty doctor or a silly flatmate – but not Mr Handsome Saves The Day.”

At the start of Martin’s career, his cousin, the actor Jeremy Brett, even offered to pay for his cosmetic surgery – to have his ears pinned back.

“It flitted through my mind and I thought, ‘no, I’ll be fine’,” he smiles.

“You need a small body and a big head to be a big star like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt. But I’ve got a big body and big head... ”

Clearly content and at ease with himself these days, Martin says much of his happiness is down to second wife, TV producer Philippa Braithwaite, and the family life they’ve built together.

Once famous for his laddish antics and larger than life behaviour, in the heyday of Men Behaving Badly he and his co-stars were just as notorious for their boozing off-screen as on.

Describing the experience as “one big stag night”, at the time he admitted experimenting with drugs too.

As he put it: “I tried most things – cocaine, LSD and lots of alcohol. I got drunk a lot. I would often wake up in the morning wishing the night before had never happened.”

Now, as he enthuses heartily about the country life, it is clear his partying days are not missed.

These days you are more likely to find Martin, 50, tending his flock of sheep than heading out on the town.

Perspective: Clunes with his wife Philippa (Photo: Getty)

Being a husband and dad to daughter, Emily, 13, has given him everything he ever wanted.

“Philippa absolutely and completely made my life better. She put everything into perspective,” he explains.

“I know a lot of people are floundering – all these actors and their many marriages left, right and centre, having children left, right and centre and ­splitting up. Poor things.

“Emily just turned 13 but she’s really nice. She works very hard at school, a lovely girl.

“But of course she will want to leave the nest one day and every parent has to get ready for letting go a bit.

“Like most things in life the prospect is much more gloomy than the reality – although her new plan is that she wants to stay at home and run a stud farm. That suits me, to have her at home for ever.

“I keep telling Emily that she’ll have to play Doc Martin when she’s older because it’s a family business. I think our family and the world we’ve made is quite grounding.”

He adds: “Now work is work whereas before work was life. Now work supports life and especially because the farm’s a family business.

“I’m not just working because of ambition and the need to get ahead, I’m working to provide for us.

“Our relationship made this happen. I think we add up to more than the sum total of our parts.

“We’re different people, but we’ve evolved hand in hand into people who live on this farm now.

“We’ve just finished five years of building and now it’s our little castle.”

The “little castle” is actually a 130-acre sheep farm in picturesque Dorset. And as Martin is keen to explain he’s a proper hands-on farmer.

“I love the countryside,” he says. “I love where I live. There’s mud everywhere – you pick up your clothes in the morning and say, ‘That’s dirty, that’ll do’ – no point in putting on anything clean. And I’m happy as a pig in the proverbial.

“It’s confusing, coming up to London – all that noise and I see more people in a day than I could see in a month back home. Tourists walking into you. And hair gel on men. Men with hairstyles! We just have hair in the country.

“I love getting back here.

“It’s very exciting, when you get one lamb out. You sit on the ewe to floor it, stick your hand in and then you’ve got to tie the little rope around their hooves and you pull her out. When you get a little one out and it’s not really breathing and you have to swing it around to clear its air passages of any fluid, and then slap it and whack it.

“When you get that first little bleat, it’s great. Sometimes you have to fish around for more in there.”

No comeback: The Men Behaving Badly cast (Photo: BBC)

As he regales us with tales to make a vet blush, it’s hard to reconcile this born-again country-lover with lovable Gary Strange in Men Behaving Badly – the hit role that shot Martin to fame.

And he has bad news for the show’s fans. Despite rumours of a comeback there are no new episodes planned.

“We’re all too old,” he says. “There was a move a few years ago to do it and we said that would be interesting, but Caroline didn’t really want to. She said, what if it was awful and let everyone down? and that was a good point.

“Then the producer, Beryl Vertue, said, what if it was just the boys? And we all said no, it was a four-hander, never just about the boys.”

He still sees the cast though. He recently hooked up with Leslie Ash – ‘as she says, she’s had a rotten time’ – while Caroline is a countryside neighbour who pops over with her teenage daughter.

Neil Morrissey isn’t a drinking buddy any more but they did have a few laughs at each other’s 50th birthday parties.

As well as working on a new series of Doc Martin, he’s been busy filming acclaimed new ITV drama The Town.

He plays Len, the town mayor caught up in a mysterious double suicide. His character is a gloomy, overweight alcoholic but Martin is loving it.

He says: “It’s great being part of an ensemble. Such a treat when you watch it and think ‘ooh, look at the other people and what they’re doing’.

“Len has let himself go in many ways. He’s got his double-breasted suit and usually you would suck your gut in but I let it out. In the script it said he was 65 and there was talk of a wig, but wigs are horrid, so we’re doing my version.

“There’s been no attempt to make me look any better. No nice make-up. He’s got red eyes – which I could provide...

“But I like playing men of weakness and complexity – they’re always much more fun than the lead guy to play. I’m always drawn to them.”